Link Building: What It Is For and How to Do It

Link building is one of the most important, and most complex, strategies in SEO (search engine optimization). If you have ever looked into SEO, you probably know that search engines such as Google use sophisticated algorithms to determine a website's relevance and authority. One of the core components of those algorithms is the very system of links that connects the web.

But what exactly do we mean by link building? Put simply, link building is the process of earning hyperlinks from other websites to your own. These links, known as backlinks, act as "votes of confidence" for your site, signaling to search engines that your content is authoritative and deserves to rank higher in search results.

Link building is not just a technical matter. It is a ranking factor and a strategy that calls for creativity, planning and, above all, a deep understanding of how the web works. When an authoritative site links to your content, it passes on part of its authority (often called "link juice"), strengthening your site's reputation and visibility in the eyes of search engines.

In an increasingly competitive digital landscape, link building can make the difference between a page that sits in the top positions of the search results and one that never gets noticed. It is fundamental not only for growing organic traffic, but also for building your domain authority and establishing your online presence.

What Is Link Building?

Link building, literally "building links", is the practice of earning external links, or backlinks, that point to your website. Search engines read these links as signals of trust and authority, which improves the site's position in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

The idea behind link building is simple: when a website adds a hyperlink pointing to another site, it is essentially "recommending" that site to its visitors. Search engines interpret this recommendation as an indication of the quality and relevance of the linked content. The more quality backlinks a site earns, the greater its authority and, as a result, its ranking in organic search.

The Difference Between Internal and External Links

• Internal Links: Links that point to other pages within the same domain. For example, a link from one page of your blog to another page of the same blog. Internal links help distribute link value (link juice) across the site and improve navigation and the user experience.
• External Links: Links that point from one domain to another. For example, a link in an article on another website that leads to your site. These are the most valuable links for SEO, because every backlink is a "recommendation" from another website.

A Brief History of Link Building

In the 1990s and early 2000s, link building was relatively simple: all you had to do was get as many links as possible, regardless of their quality. Search engines of that era, such as AltaVista and Google's early algorithms, relied mainly on the number of links to determine a site's authority.

Over time, however, search engines refined their algorithms to prevent manipulation. Google's PageRank algorithm, introduced in 1998, put the emphasis on the quality of links rather than their quantity. Later, updates such as Google Penguin (2012) penalized sites using spammy link building tactics, such as buying links or taking part in link schemes.

Google's algorithm updates have had a major impact on link building practices:

• PageRank: Introduced in 1998, it made link quality a crucial factor, penalizing sites with low-quality links.
• Penguin Update (2012): Penalized sites using manipulative link building tactics, such as buying links and link networks.
• Hummingbird (2013): Improved the understanding of link context, rewarding relevant, high-quality content.
• E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness): A concept introduced in Google's Search Quality Rater Guidelines that emphasizes the importance of a website's expertise, authority and trustworthiness.

These changes have made link building a more complex, strategic practice. It is no longer about getting a high number of links, but about earning relevant, high-quality links from authoritative sites. A backlink network must be built ethically and sustainably, avoiding shortcuts that can lead to penalties.

Types of Links

Natural Links

Natural links are those you earn without any direct action on your part. They are created when other sites decide on their own to link to your content because they find it useful, informative or interesting. Natural links are considered the most valuable for SEO because they represent a genuine "vote" of confidence from other webmasters.

How to Earn Natural Links

• Create Quality Content: In-depth, original, well-written content tends to earn more natural links.
• Infographics and Visual Content: Eye-catching, informative visuals are often shared and linked by other sites.
• Research and Industry Studies: Unique data and original research are valuable resources that other sites will want to cite and link to.

Paid Links

Paid links are links obtained in exchange for payment. While they can deliver a quick boost in backlinks, search engines such as Google strongly discourage the practice. Buying links can lead to severe penalties, up to and including removal of the site from the search results.

Google severely penalizes sites that buy or sell links to manipulate search rankings. Paid links often come from low-quality or irrelevant sites that can damage your site's authority.

Manual Links

Manual links are earned through direct actions such as guest posting, taking part in industry forums and reaching out to webmasters with link requests. They take more time and effort than natural links, but can be extremely effective when done well.

Manual Link Strategies

• Guest Posting: Writing articles for other blogs or websites in exchange for a backlink to your site.
• Blog Comments: Joining discussions on relevant blogs and including links to your site where appropriate.
• Forums and Online Communities: Contributing to industry forums and online groups, sharing useful links to your site.

Directory Links

Web directories are lists of websites organized by category. In the past, submitting to lots of directories was a common link building strategy. Today, however, their effectiveness is limited, and search engines consider many directories to be low quality.

Link Building Strategies

Content Marketing

Creating high-quality page content is one of the most effective strategies for attracting natural links. Well-written, informative and relevant content attracts not only visitors but also other websites that will want to share and link to your material.

Types of Content to Create

• In-Depth Articles: Comprehensive, detailed guides on specific topics.
• Case Studies and Original Research: In-depth analysis and unique data that offer real added value.
• Infographics and Visual Content: Informative visuals that are easy to share.

Content Promotion

• Social Media: Share your content on social media to increase its visibility.
• Email Outreach: Contact influencers and relevant sites to tell them about your new content.
• Guest Blogging: Publish articles on other websites and blogs, including links to your content.

Guest Posting

Guest posting means writing articles for other blogs or websites in exchange for a link back to your own site. This strategy not only strengthens your backlink profile but also helps you build relationships in your industry.

Writing Quality Guest Posts

• Original Content: Make sure your articles are original and not duplicated.
• Relevance: Write content that is relevant and useful to the host site's audience.
• Natural Links: Include links to your site naturally and where they are relevant within the content.

Infographics and Visual Content

Infographics are powerful link building tools because they combine data with eye-catching visuals, making them easy to understand and share.

The Creation Process

• Data Gathering: Use reliable data that is relevant to your industry.
• Compelling Design: Work with a graphic designer to create a visually appealing infographic.
• Distribution: Share the infographic on social media, send it to bloggers and publish it on your site.

Benefits of Infographics

• Easy to Share: Infographics are often shared and linked spontaneously.
• Visual Appeal: They increase the time users spend on your site.
• Informative Value: They deliver useful information in an easy-to-digest format.

Broken Link Building

Broken link building is a technique that involves finding broken links on other websites and suggesting your own content as a replacement. It benefits both sides: the site you contact fixes a problem, and you earn a new backlink.

Tools for Finding Broken Links

• Check My Links: A Google Chrome extension that finds broken links on a page.
• Ahrefs and SEMrush: SEO tools that help you find broken links on authoritative sites.

Contacting Webmasters

• Outreach Emails: Send a polite, concise email to the webmaster, pointing out the broken links and offering your content as a replacement.
• Personalization: Personalize your messages to improve your chances of success.

Skyscraper Technique

The Skyscraper Technique, devised by Brian Dean of Backlinko, involves finding popular content in your industry, creating a better version of it and then contacting the sites that linked to the original to offer yours as an improved alternative.

Use tools such as Ahrefs or BuzzSumo to find articles in your industry with lots of backlinks. Add more detail, updates, images and anything else that can improve on the original. Then contact the sites linking to the original article and offer your content as an improved resource.

Advantages of the Skyscraper Technique

• High Chance of Success: Sites that have already linked to similar content are more likely to link to yours if it is better.
• More Quality Backlinks: You earn backlinks from pages that have already shown interest in the topic.

Link Building Tools

Ahrefs

Ahrefs is one of the most powerful and widely used link building tools. It offers a broad range of features for analyzing your own backlinks and your competitors'.

• Site Explorer: Shows which sites link to yours and to your competitors', with detailed information on the quality and quantity of backlinks.
• Content Explorer: Helps you find the most linked content in your industry, so you can spot backlink opportunities.
• Alerts: Lets you set up alerts to track new or lost backlinks, so you are always up to date.

Moz

Moz offers several SEO tools, including Moz Link Explorer, which is especially useful for backlink analysis.

• Link Explorer: Provides a complete overview of a site's backlink profile, including inbound links, referring domains and page authority.
• Spam Score: Flags potentially harmful backlinks with a spam score.
• MozBar: A free browser toolbar that shows SEO and backlink metrics as you browse the web.

SEMrush

SEMrush is another all-in-one SEO tool with powerful link building features.

• Backlink Analytics: Lets you analyze your competitors' backlink profiles and identify the best link building opportunities.
• Backlink Audit: Analyzes your backlinks to identify and remove toxic ones.
• Link Building Tool: A suite of tools that helps you find and manage link building opportunities.

BuzzStream

BuzzStream is an outreach tool that helps you manage your link building campaigns and your relationships with webmasters.

• Contact Management: Organize your contacts and track email conversations.
• Influencer Discovery: Find relevant influencers and sites for your link building campaigns.
• Personalized Emails: Automate the sending of personalized emails for your outreach campaigns.

Pitchbox

Pitchbox is another outreach tool that simplifies contacting webmasters and managing relationships.

• Outreach Automation: Automates contact research and the sending of personalized emails.
• CRM Integration: Integrates with your CRM systems so you can keep track of relationships.
• Reporting: Provides detailed reports on your outreach campaigns, tracking effectiveness and responses.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is an essential tool for monitoring your site's traffic and assessing the effectiveness of your link building campaigns.

• Referral Traffic: Analyze where your traffic comes from and identify the sites sending you the most visitors.
• Conversions: Track the conversions generated by referral links and assess the ROI of your link building campaigns.
• Custom Reports: Build custom reports to track specific link building goals.

Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a free Google tool that helps you monitor and maintain your site's presence in search results.

• Links Report: Provides an overview of the backlinks pointing to your site.
• Internal Links: Analyzes your site's internal link structure so you can optimize how link juice is distributed.
• Manual Actions: Alerts you to any manual penalties caused by non-compliant link building practices.

Link Building Mistakes to Avoid

1. Buying Links: Buying links is strongly discouraged and can lead to serious penalties from search engines. Google and other search engines see link buying as manipulation of their algorithms and punish it severely. On top of that, paying for links that search engines can remove or devalue is an unsustainable investment.
2. Using link schemes: Link schemes include practices such as link exchanges, link networks and other techniques designed to manipulate search rankings. These schemes violate Google's guidelines and can lead to severe penalties.
3. Low-quality links: Low-quality links come from irrelevant sites or sites with little authority. Not only do they fail to help your ranking, they can actually hurt it.
4. Over-optimization: Anchor text over-optimization happens when exact-match keywords are overused in links. This can look suspicious to search engines and lead to penalties. To avoid it, use a variety of anchor texts, including long-tail, branded and generic ones.
5. Ignoring your backlink profile: Keeping a healthy backlink profile is crucial to a successful link building strategy. Ignoring your backlinks can lead to problems such as toxic links and penalties. To deal with toxic links, use the disavow tool to tell Google which links you do not want considered when ranking your site.